Epicurus’ Apolitical Attitude

Le conseil épicurien d’éviter la participation politique a reçu maintes interprétations, souvent obscures et mal fondées. L’attitude apolitique ne peut être définie comme un simple manque d’intérêt ou de préoccupation pour la politique ; en effet, selon l’opinion de Pierre Hadot, la philosophie ancienne est profondément ancrée dans l’existence et les doctrines philosophiques n’acquièrent de l’importance que lorsqu’elles assistent le praxis. L’attitude d’Épicure est donc enracinée dans le refus de vivre selon des normes prescrites par l’établissement politique. Selon lui, la politique traditionnelle est vouée à l’échec puisqu’elle poursuit aveuglément le pouvoir et la richesse. En réaction à cette situation, Épicure crée une communauté qui instaure de nouvelles valeurs et au sein de laquelle il est possible de vivre conformément à ces nouvelles valeurs. Se situant en totale opposition aux modes de vie les plus fondamentaux de la cité, les adeptes d’Épicure, s’ils participaient à la vie politique, déclencheraient une grande hostilité de la part des partisans des valeurs traditionnelles. Pour cette raison, l’attitude épicurienne peut d’abord représenter une manière d’éviter la persécution politique. De plus, s’il est admis que la politique implique la poursuite du pouvoir, les épicuriens ne peuvent s’y adonner puisque cela serait contradictoire à leur quête d’ataraxie. À tous égards et indépendamment de ces deux motifs justifiant le retrait de la vie politique, il est clair que si l’attitude d’Épicure ne reposait pas sur une conscience politique, alors, ses critiques à l’égard de la vie politique, son désir de s’y soustraire et la création d’une communauté distincte n’auraient pas été. La politique a le pouvoir de profondément modeler la vie des gens. Considérant que ce conditionnement s’appuie sur des valeurs malsaines, le projet épicurien s’applique donc à remodeler, à la lumière de nouvelles valeurs, la vie de ceux qui ne trouvent aucune satisfaction à poursuivre la vie de la cité.

Lower Cortisol Activity is Associated with First-Time Driving while Impaired

Driving while impaired (DWI) is a grave and persistent high-risk behavior. Previous work demonstrated that DWI recidivists had attenuated cortisol reactivity compared to non-DWI drivers. This suggests that cortisol is a neurobiological marker of high-risk driving. The present study tested the hypothesis that this initial finding would extend to first-time DWI (fDWI) offenders compared to non-DWI drivers. Male fDWI offenders (n = 139) and non-DWI drivers (n = 31) were exposed to a stress task, and their salivary cortisol activity (total output and reactivity) was measured. Participants also completed questionnaires on sensation seeking, impulsivity, substance use, and engagement in risky and criminal behaviors. As hypothesized, fDWI offenders, compared to non-DWI drivers, had lower cortisol reactivity; fDWI offenders also showed lower total output. In addition, cortisol activity was the most important predictor of group membership, after accounting for alcohol misuse patterns and consequences and other personality and problem behavior characteristics. The findings indicate that attenuated cortisol activity is an independent factor associated with DWI offending risk at an earlier stage in the DWI trajectory than previously detected.

Influence of the driving mechanism on the response of systems with athermal dynamics: The example of the random-field Ising model

We investigate the influence of the driving mechanism on the hysteretic response of systems with athermal dynamics. In the framework of local mean-field theory at finite temperature (but neglecting thermally activated processes), we compare the rate-independent hysteresis loops obtained in the random field Ising model when controlling either the external magnetic field H or the extensive magnetization M. Two distinct behaviors are observed, depending on disorder strength. At large disorder, the H-driven and M-driven protocols yield identical hysteresis loops in the thermodynamic limit. At low disorder, when the H-driven magnetization curve is discontinuous (due to the presence of a macroscopic avalanche), the M-driven loop is reentrant while the induced field exhibits strong intermittent fluctuations and is only weakly self-averaging. The relevance of these results to the experimental observations in ferromagnetic materials, shape memory alloys, and other disordered systems is discussed.

Identifying the factors governing attitude towards the e-Agriservice among dairy farmers in Maharashtra, India

Information and communication technology (ICT) projects have a great potential to revolutionise the information delivery system by bridging the gap between farmers and extension personnel. aAQUA (Almost All Questions Answered) portal was launched by the Developmental Informatics Laboratory (DIL) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India in 2003 as an information providing system to deliver technology options and tailored information for the problems and queries raised by Indian dairy farmers. To measure the effectiveness of this service the attitudinal dimensions of the users of aAQUA e-Agriservice were investigated using a 22 item scale. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 120 dairy farmers from which data were collected and subjected to factor analysis to identify the underlying constructs in this research. From the attitude items, four components were extracted and named as the pessimistic, utility, technical and efficacy perspective, which influenced the development of varied level of attitudinal inclination towards the e-Agriservice. These components explained 64.40 per cent of variation in the attitude of the users towards the aAQUA e-Agriservice. This study provides a framework for technically efficient service provision that might help to reduce the pessimistic attitude of target population to adopt e-Agriservice in their farming system. The results should also be helpful for researchers, academics, ICT based service providers and policy makers to consider these perspectives while planning and implementing ICT projects.

Attitude in students of Health Sciences toward scientific knowledge

Educating health professionals implies the challenge of creating and developing an inquiring mind, ready to be in a state of permanent questioning. For this purpose, it is fundamental to generate a positive attitude toward the generation of knowledge and science. Objective: to determine the attitude toward science and the scientific method in undergraduate students of health sciences. Materials and methods: a cross-sectional study was made by applying a self-administered survey, excluding those who were transferred from other universities and repeated. The attitude toward science and the scientific method were valued using the scale validated and published by Hren, which contains three domains: value of scientific knowledge, value of scientific methodology, and value of science for health professions. Results: 362 students were included, 86,6% of them graded the attitude toward scientific knowledge above 135 points, neutral scale value. Similar scores were registered in the domains value of scientific knowlede for the human dimension of the students and value of science for health professions. 91,4% of the students graded the value of scientific methodology below 48 points. Conclusions: the favorable attitude of the students can be explained by the contact that they have with the scientific method since the beginning of their studies and its concordance with the evolution of science. The domain value of scientific methodology obtained the lowest grade on the part of the students, which could be related to the lack of knowledge about scientific methodology.

La medida de la eficacia docente. Descripci??n y aplicaci??n del Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory : un instrumento predictor

Ofrecer una panor??mica que pretende incluir el fundamento de la evaluaci??n en general, su concreci??n en el ??mbito de la evaluaci??n del docente, es decir, de su eficacia describiendo modalidades e instrumentos de evaluaci??n y sus agentes. Analizar una de esas modalidades: Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory a partir de una experiencia concreta. Hip??tesis: A) La clasificaci??n ordinal atendiendo a los promedios obtenidos en las calificaciones de las asignaturas cursadas durante la carrera, no guardan correlaci??n significativa con las puntuaciones del Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. B) Las calificaciones en la asignatura de Did??ctica obtenidas por los alumnos de segundo curso guardan correlaci??n con las puntuaciones en el MTAI. C) Las actitudes de los estudiantes de Magisterio frente a la Educaci??n, despu??s de haber realizado su per??odo largo de pr??cticas docentes -3 meses-, se modifican negativamente. Alumnos de los tres cursos de las Escuelas de Formaci??n del Profesorado de EGB de Barcelona y Tarragona (oficiales) y Blanquerna de Barcelona (no oficial), durante el mes de mayo de 1979. Definidos los planteamientos te??ricos se aplica el MTAI despu??s de haberle hecho unas adaptaciones formales para poderlo aplicar a nuestro contexto y confeccionar una hoja de respuestas m??s operativa y ??til para la correcci??n manual con plantilla. En base a unas hip??tesis y disponiendo de unos datos se analizan los resultados y se extraen las conclusiones pertinentes. Consultas personales, textos, documentos y revistas educativas. MTAI (mide las actitudes, prev?? las relaciones que se establecen en la clase y la satisfacci??n que el futuro educador obtendr?? de la Ense??anza como profesi??n). Tabulaci??n de los datos mediante puntuaciones medias globales, pol??gonos de frecuencias, correlaciones graduales y correlaciones lineales. Las puntuaciones obtenidas no se corresponden con las de los baremos americanos, la media en el baremo es de 59.5 y la de nuestros estudiantes apenas sobrepasa el 30. Hay una necesidad de adaptaciones y validaciones completas para pruebas de prestigio en otras ??reas geogr??ficas. El instrumento es ??til para servirse de ??l como referencia, a pesar de las deficiencias que implica la aplicaci??n directa e inmediata tras la traducci??n del original.

Antecedents of the attitude towards inter-group reconciliation in a setting of armed conflict

Resumen tomado de la publicación

Psychometric properties of the Spanish Adaptation of the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Adaptation of the Evidence-Based Practices Attitude Scale in Spanish child welfare professionals

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n